Heroes Not Zombies

I find lichens and mosses quite beautiful so I often feel drawn to photograph them. That’s what I did here in this garden. It was only later when I uploaded my shots to my computer to review them that I got a bit of a fright when I got to this one.

When I looked at the photo I saw a scary monster! The face of some creature straight out of a fantasy novel!

We have special circuits in our brains for spotting faces and they work so well that sometimes they see faces where no face exists. Like on this occasion. That always fascinates me. And once seen these faces can’t be unseen.

Our experience of seeing, then, is a creative act. We don’t just project an image onto some internal screen the way a camera lens does. We actively work with the visual stimuli to create what we see.

I decided to share this particular photo with you today because it’s Halloween. And this is the time we like to scare ourselves and others. Personally I’m not a fan of horror movies but there is something thrilling about being scared – remember Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video?

Actually people like to be scared, but only up to a point. There’s a fine line between being thrilled and being seriously upset with overwhelming fear. And that zone where the thrills occur is very variable. Different people tolerate or even seek it to very different degrees.

To some extent the thrill of being scared works only when we know we are kidding ourselves. For example we know that we are not in any real danger when we see someone with an axe in a movie or on the stage. It’s a completely different matter to be approached by someone like that as you walk down the street!

That’s the power of fiction isn’t it? It allows us to explore and experience a whole gamut of emotions and disturbing situations safely. Well that’s one of the things it does. I know fiction does a lot more than that – bringing pleasure, developing empathy and helping us to make sense of our lives, for example.

So, what are your favourite scary stories or movies? And how do you celebrate Halloween?